Tinley Park troops consider allowing gay scouts

As national leaders consider lifting ban, local groups wrestle with question

February 13, 2013|By Andy Grimm, Chicago Tribune reporter

Amid a flurry of protests from both conservatives and gay rights activists, Boy Scouts of America leaders last week announced they would explore a policy that would allow individual scout troops across the country to choose whether they would allow gay members or adult volunteers.

National scouting leaders could pass off a difficult, controversial decision into the hands of the thousands of small groups of scouts, many of them sponsored by local churches, said the Rev. Adam Malak, an Eagle Scout whose congregation at Faith United Presbyterian Church sponsors Tinley Park's Troop 385.

Malak's congregation welcomes gay members, and while he admits he does not look forward to the controversy roiling his flock, he does welcome "the growth that will come through the controversy."

"I think the congregation would (support lifting the ban on gay scouts) ... but it would not be a unanimous decision or an easy decision, and it would require some people to struggle deeply with their faith," said Malak, who grew up in Homer Glen and earned his Eagle Scout badge in high school.

"I will say that this is not an issue that has come up with our church to date."

Troops throughout Tinley Park are sponsored by churches — as are about 70 percent of scout troops nationally — as well as organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Bill Brady, committee chairman for Troop 911 — the troop number is a tribute to their sponsor, the Tinley Park Police Department — notes that since his troop was chartered by a government entity, it probably could not allow discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Brady, a Eucharistic minister at Catholic congregation St. Stephen Deacon and Martyr, said he doesn't have a problem with allowing gays into scouting, but is certain troops with more conservative scoutmasters or with ties to more conservative denominations likely would leave the ban in place.

"It would be like the fight over Obamacare and abortion, where the churches don't want to have to provide (abortion) under their insurance because of their religious values," Brady said.

The BSA last summer had affirmed the no-gays policy. National scouting leaders were to consider lifting the ban during their annual meeting in Irving, Texas, last week, but opted to assign a committee to review the policy and postponed a decision until May.

Leaving the decision to bar or allow gay members to individual troops was considered a compromise that would allow the 103-year-old organization to appease calls for change with the concerns of traditionalists.

Malak worries that if the national scouting leadership decides to leave the decision to individual troops, it might create a schism in the organization.

"Would a gay-friendly troop be allowed to camp with one that wasn't?" he asked.

The furor likely weighs least on the scouts themselves, Malak said.

"I don't know how much it matters to them," Malak said. "I think they just want to go out and do some camping and earn some merit badges."